Jessica Chastain to be honoured at Palm Springs

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Jessica Chastain is to be honoured at the 23rd Palm Springs International Film Festival.

The flame-haired actress is to receive the Spotlight Award for her roles in films including 'The Help', 'The Tree of Life', 'The Debt' and 'Coriolanus', with festival chairman Harold Matzner claiming she was among the best actresses of 2011.

He said: "Through a series of virtuoso performances, Jessica Chastain has established herself as one of the cinema's most versatile and most sought after young actresses."

Composer Howard Shore is to be given the Frederick Loewe Music Award for his part in writing the score for 'Hugo'.

Harold said: "Howard Shore is a master composer who has consistently delighted audience of the more than 80 films he has scored.

"In 'Hugo', the labyrinthine setting of a Paris railway station, where a young boy lives alone, doing what he must to survive, and the discovery of an aging filmmaker gifted with a second chance provide the perfect inspiration for Shore's haunting score."

The gala awards take place at Palm Springs Convention Center on 7 January.